For the members of the U.S. Senate to be cleansed of sin and purified to serve their constituencies with faithfulness and godliness
And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.
�Hebrews 10:21-23
O God of promises, I praise and thank You today for keeping every promise You have made�and for Your ultimate promise of salvation which is in Jesus Christ, Your Son. Thank You for Your untiring faithfulness which secures a place in Heaven for me.
Today, I ask for blessings on the members of the United States Senate�those newly elected and those who have served for years. O God, as these dedicated men and women prepare to serve our nation in the 111th Congress, I ask that You cleanse and purify them so they may serve You and our nation with faithfulness and godliness. In Your holy name, amen.
I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Verses 1-2
Philippians 4:6-9
This is, of course, a favorite passage of Scripture for many people. But take a look at how Eugene Peterson translates this.
Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me [Paul], what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Isn't that beautiful? I just got the most amazing sense of peacefulness just from reading that.
How do we handle things that worry us? Did you know that worry is a sin? No, the Bible never comes right out and says, "Thou shall not worry!" But worry is the opposite of faith. And anything that is not from faith is sinful. When we worry, we indicate that we do not trust God. Period. And yes, I worry sometimes. We all do it. But it's a sin, and we should immediately confess it and repent and begin to trust God with whatever it is that we are worrying about.
Some people, though, handle worries by trying to ignore them, hoping they will go away. That usually doesn't work, either. Paul tells us to "Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers..." Turn those worries into something positive. Turn them over to our Father, who knows all about them, anyway.
Read that list again of things that Paul says we should focus on, set our minds on. True. Noble. Reputable. Authentic. Compelling. Gracious. After I turn my worries over to God, then I need to find a way to meditate on anything that fits those descriptive words. The promised result is that "God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies."
Father, help me turn over to you anything that is causing me to worry today. We are concerned about our jobs and finances due to the current economy, but you own the cattle on a thousand hills. All the resources of heaven and earth belong to you, and I am confident that you will take care of us. I pray for my wife's anxieties over work and family and pray that you would quiet her mind and spirit and help her focus on you. I pray for Stephanie's anxieties over classes in school, especially with finals coming up next week. Quiet her mind with your presence.
Help us all to turn any worries into prayers with petitions and praises and flood our spirits with that sense of your wholeness.
God loves us with a love that has been called a "reckless, raging fury." His love for us cannot be quenched by anything. His faithfulness joins with that love to do all things that he has promised us that he will do, not the least of which is "never leave us or forsake us." He will take care of us, and he will do what he says he will do. (On the other side of that coin, though...be sure that he really said he will do it before you start trying to claim it...) Finally, his power is what will accomplish whatever it is that he will do. That power is like the power that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. Remember that one? That was back in Ephesians, I think.
Meditate on those three attributes of God today. They are true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, and gracious. They are the best. They are the beautiful. And they are things to praise.
Grace and peace, friends!